Statistics PhD/MPhil/MSc (Research)

The School of Mathematics & Statistics combines world-leading research expertise in pure and applied mathematics and statistics in areas such as mathematical biology, fluid dynamics, geometry and topology and environmental statistics.

Research projects

PhD opportunities

Overview

With a sizeable complement of academic staff and postgraduate students, the School of Mathematics and Statistics is one of the largest in the UK.

Our research interests cover several areas of Pure and Applied Mathematics. These areas are not mutually exclusive and there are considerable benefits from interactions between the different areas that enhance the research environment.

All our research areas are highly rated internationally and most members of the School have ongoing collaborations with mathematicians overseas and elsewhere in the UK. Many overseas mathematicians spend periods in Glasgow working with members of the School.

There are several series of research seminars with invited speakers from the UK and overseas. There is also a regular postgraduate seminar where our PhD students can develop their presentational skills. All this helps to generate a lively and mutually supportive research environment, which has led to the award of coveted prizes and competitive fellowships for several of our younger staff.

Research areas

The main areas of research are broadly described within the headings below:

Statistics

Study options

Integrated PhD programme (4 years)

Our PhD with Integrated Study in Mathematical Sciences is a four-year PhD programme in the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

Completion of taught Masters level courses in the first nine months will provide you with a valuable introduction to academic topics and research methods, whilst providing key training in the critical evaluation of research data.

Upon successful completion of the taught component, you will progress to your research degree. You will submit a thesis to be examined by the end of your fourth year.

Entry requirements

PhD programmes

2.1 Honours degree or equivalent

Required documentation

Applicants should submit:

Transcripts/degree certificate

Two references

CV

Integrated PhD programmes

2.1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant subject area

Fees and funding

Fees

2020/21

Prices are based on the annual fee for full-time study. Fees for part-time study are half the full-time fee.

Additional fees for all students:

Re-submission by a research student £525

Submission for a higher degree by published work £1,315

Submission of thesis after deadline lapsed £340

Submission by staff in receipt of staff scholarship £765

Research students registered as non-supervised Thesis Pending students (50% refund will be granted if the student completes thesis within the first six months of the period) £300

Depending on the nature of the research project, some students will be expected to pay a bench fee (also known as research support costs) to cover additional costs. The exact amount will be provided in the offer letter.

Alumni discount

A 10% discount is available to University of Glasgow alumni. This includes graduates and those who have completed a Junior Year Abroad, Exchange programme or International Summer School at the University of Glasgow. The discount is applied at registration for students who are not in receipt of another discount or scholarship funded by the University. No additional application is required.

Funding for EU students

The UK government has confirmed that EU nationals will remain eligible to apply for Research Council PhD studentships at UK institutions for 2019/20 to help cover costs for the duration of their study. The Scottish Government has confirmed that fees for EU students commencing their studies in 2019/20 and 2020/21 will be at the same level as those for UK students.

2019/20 fees

£4,327 UK/EU

£21,020 outside EU

Prices are based on the annual fee for full-time study. Fees for part-time study are half the full-time fee.

Additional fees for all students:

Re-submission by a research student £500

Submission for a higher degree by published work £1,250

Submission of thesis after deadline lapsed £320

Submission by staff in receipt of staff scholarship £730

Research students registered as non-supervised Thesis Pending students (50% refund will be granted if the student completes thesis within the first six months of the period) £300

Depending on the nature of the research project, some students will be expected to pay a bench fee (also known as research support costs) to cover additional costs. The exact amount will be provided in the offer letter.

Funding

Support

Our postgraduate students join a community of academic experts across a wide range of pure and applied mathematics and statistics and develop a mature understanding of fundamental theories and analytical skills applicable to many solutions.

There is a lively seminar program with members of the Schools involved in a number of networks including the North British Functional Analysis Seminar, The North British Differential Equations Seminar and the LMS Network on Classical and Quantum Integrability.

The School also welcomes many guest speakers from the UK and overseas. We hold regular postgraduate seminars, where our PhD students can develop their presentation skills, and international conferences and workshops.

Students can also attend our hugely popular week-long training course each year, which provides practically motivated training in key statistical analysis and modelling skills.

You will be part of a Graduate School which provides the highest level of support to its students.

The overall aim of our Graduate School is to provide a world-leading environment for students which is intellectually stimulating, encourages them to contribute to culture, society and the economy and enables them to become leaders in a global environment.

We have a diverse community of over 750 students from more than 50 countries who work in innovative and transformative disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. An important part of our work is to bring our students together and to ensure they consider themselves an important part of the University’s academic community.

Being part of our Graduate School community will be of huge advantage to you in your studies and beyond and we offer students a number of benefits in addition to exceptional teaching and supervision, including:

A wide-ranging and responsive research student training programme which enables you to enhance your skills and successfully complete your studies.

Mobility scholarships of up to £4000 to enable you to undertake work in collaboration with an international partner.

A diverse programme of activities which will ensure you feel part of the wider-research community (including our biannual science slam event).

A residential trip for all new research students.

The opportunity to engage with industry-partners through training, placements and events.

Professionally accredited programmes.

Unique Masters programmes run in collaboration with other organisations.

Collaborations

Our research group has strong connections with environmental agencies such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the Environment Agency in England and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

These collaborations have led to research secondments for postgraduate students, and other opportunities have seen students travelling abroad to work with high-profile scientific groups such as the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

How to apply

Identify potential supervisors

All Postgraduate Research Students are allocated a supervisor who will act as the main
source of academic support and research mentoring. You may want to identify a potential
supervisor and contact them to discuss your research proposal before you apply. Please note,
even if you have spoken to an academic staff member about your proposal you still need to submit
an online application form.

Gather your documents

Before applying please make sure you gather the following supporting documentation:

Final or current degree transcripts including grades (and an official translation, if needed)
– scanned copy in colour of the original document

Degree certificates (and an official translation, if needed): scanned copy in colour of the
original document

Two references on headed paper (academic and/or professional).

Research proposal, CV, samples of written work as per requirements for each subject area.

Submitting References

To complete your application we will need two references (one must be academic the other can be
academic or professional).

There are two options for you to submit references as part of your application. You can
upload a document as part of your application or you can enter in your referee’s contact
details and we will contact them to request a reference.

Option 1 – Uploading as part of the application form

Your references should be on official headed paper. These should also be signed by the referee.
You can then upload these via theOnline Application form with the rest your documents to complete
the application process.

Please be aware that documents must not exceed 5MB in size and therefore you may have to upload
your documents separately. The online system allow you to upload supporting documents only in PDF
format. For a free PDF writer go to www.pdfforge.org.

Option 2 - Entering contact details as part of the application form

If you enter your referees contact details including email on the application form we will email
them requesting they submit a reference once you have submitted the application form. When the
referee responds and sends a reference you will be sent an email to confirm the university has
received this.

After submitting your application form

Use our Applicant Self Service uploading documents function to submit a new reference. We can
also accept confidential references direct to
rio-researchadmissions@glasgow.ac.uk, from the
referee’s university or business email account.

I've applied. What next?

If you are requested to upload further documents

Log into the Applicant Self Service and scroll down to the Admissions Section. The screenshot below indicates the section on the page, and the specific area you should go to, highlighted in red:

Documents must be uploaded in .jpg, .jpeg or .pdf format and must not exceed 5MB in size. There is a maximum 10MB upload size for all documents with the application.

Decisions

Once a decision has been made regarding your application the Research Admissions Office will contact you by email.

If you are made an unconditional offer

You can accept your offer through the Applicant-Self-Service by clicking on the ‘Accept/Decline link’ for your chosen programme under the ‘Admissions Section’ at the bottom of the Applicant Self Service screen. You can access the Applicant Self Service by using the link, username and password you used to apply and selecting the “Self Service” button below your application.

Please make sure you accept your unconditional offer within 4 weeks of receiving your offer. If you are an international student your CAS will not be issued until you have accepted an unconditional offer.

If you are made a conditional offer

If you accept a conditional offer then the offer status on Applicant-Self-Service will change to ‘incomplete’ to indicate that the application is incomplete until such time as all the conditions are met.

Your offer letter will list all the conditions that apply to your offer and you can upload the required document(s) through Applicant Self Service. If you have met the conditions satisfactorily, you will automatically be sent an unconditional offer.

If your application is unsuccessful

If your application is unsuccessful then we will send you an email to inform you of this which will outline the reason why we have been unable to offer you a place on this particular programme. Please note that your application status will be updated to 'Cancelled' on Applicant Self Service if the offer is rejected.

Deferring your offer

If you want to defer your start date, please contact us directly at rio-researchadmissions@glasgow.ac.uk. We need authorisation from your supervisor before we confirm your request to defer. Once we have this we will contact you by email to confirm.

How to register

After you have accepted an unconditional offer you will receive an email nearer to the start of your studies to tell you how to register online using the University's MyCampus website, the University’s student information system. That email will provide you with your personal login details and the website address. Please ensure that your email address is kept up to date as all correspondence is sent via email. You can update your email address through the Applicant Self Service Portal under the Personal Information section.